Alarming Rise of Privileged Account Breaches

Sep 19, 2018 | Cyber Security , Malicious Activitied

Digital security breaches happening globally have not spared any industry from its fangs. These breach incidents mostly take place with the help of external malefactors or malicious insiders. The ever-existing challenge of information security always comes in between smooth IT operations and data protection of small, medium and large business enterprises. The privileged accounts which are always vulnerable to security breaches are always preferred by cyber crooks because of abundant confidential business data can be accessed only through privileged accounts.

Privileged accounts protect different assets in different industries. In BFSI, information assets are the most crucial part shielded whereas, in the aviation industry, the passenger information and ATC (Air Traffic Controller) related critical data are kept secured under privileged accounts. Not only that, if we look into the Government sector, pharmaceutical industry or even supermarket chain, we come to know that data assets are the most crucial part in maintaining smooth operations. According to a new report, almost $11,38,000 is lost to cyber crime globally every minute. As the digital world is growing rapidly over the recent past, the number and types of cyber crimes have increased simultaneously.

According to the cyber security experts, there is no way to stay relieved thinking that we are immune to digital threats. Further research reveals that $1,71,233 is spent every minute on information security globally. Not only that, it is found that approximately 2.9 million records are breached every day publicly. These crucial information are accessed through multiple privileged accounts which shows the importance of a reputed and standard risk control solution. As an obvious gesture, the malefactors try to compromise those accounts to take hostage of the sensitive data unlawfully and use them for further breaches.

It is now accepted worldwide that protecting the privileged accounts with extra cautiousness can curb the chances of data theft in a larger way. These accounts if controlled and managed by a robust PAM solution (Privileged Access Management) can give a secured digital environment to thwart cyber threats successfully. Today, organizations are more worried about internal malicious actors who pose to be bigger worries than that of tainted outsiders. In order to control that, PAM solution works as a big respite because of its user authentication, granular access control, real-time session monitoring or password vault features.

Due to multiple privileged users, it might not be possible every time to monitor and manage the accesses of privileged accounts. Hence, granular access control helps organizations from unauthorized access and suspicious activities. Even, dual factor user authentication works as an additional layer of protection to prevent unauthorized access. These privileged user activities are continuously monitored in real-time to detect and alert the administrators if any malicious activity takes place.

In addition, fortifying the privilege accounts help organizations to fulfill the regulatory requirements (like GDPR, SWIFT, PCI DSS, HIPAA etc.) from a single platform. PAM solution works as a safe umbrella to the enterprise IT infrastructure to not only protect the data assets from cyber threats but also maintain a complete audit trail of the activities happening in and around the privileged accounts.